


Pinky Promise (To Come Back To You)

by pensversusswords



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kinda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 04:51:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7604173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pensversusswords/pseuds/pensversusswords
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Against all odds, Allura will find her way back to him, and he will find his way back to her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pinky Promise (To Come Back To You)

**Author's Note:**

> Normally I wouldn't post something this short on here, but I'm trying to get in the habit of posting all of my fic on AO3 since it's more secure than tumblr and more organized for fic... aaaanyways, here we are. This is a cleaned up version of the fic I wrote on tumblr [right here](http://queenalluraofaltea.tumblr.com/post/147616679175/but-imagine-the-first-time-shiro-tries-to-do-a).

He does it the first time they are separated on a mission after they’ve gotten together.

It’s an especially dangerous mission and everyone is painfully aware of the fact. The atmosphere in the ship is thick with tension; they’re all in the same room but no one is talking, everyone too wrapped up in their own thoughts. Shiro knows they’re all scared, justifiably so, and Shiro isn’t exempt from their fear. He knows what they’re getting into is beyond dangerous. The Galra ship heading towards them could take them down in an instant if they didn’t do everything according to plan. 

Shiro knows when it was logical to be scared. He doesn’t push it away; in his experience, fear is always a better motivator than apathy. He’s no stranger to fear, they’ve become well acquainted with each other in recent years, but he is also well experienced with not letting it cloud his judgment. He's a leader; he has to know when to swallow fear and 

Plus, even though he knows Allura is strong and more than capable of taking care of herself, the idea of leaving her and going headfirst in battle has a ball of worry sitting heavily in his throat. It was unavoidable and completely impossible to ignore.

Allura notices, of course, because what doesn’t she notice? She comes up from behind him and tangles their fingers together, squeezing gently as she leans her head on his shoulder. 

“You don’t have to be scared,” she tells him. Her thumb rubs idly against the inside of Shiro’s wrist, gentle against the sensitive skin there. Shiro shivers and squeezes her hand back. 

“We always make it back,” she continues. 

He turns to her then with a sigh, their hands still joined together in the space between their bodies. “I know,” he says, “but I can’t help but be a little bit scared. Not when I have so much to lose.” 

“You’re not going to lose me,” she tells him, so gentle and so fierce all at the same time. “You’re not going to lose any of us.”

Shiro sighs and tips his head forward to rest on Allura’s shoulder. He lets go of her hand so that he can reach both hands around her waist and tug her close, drawing her in for an embrace. She steps into his arms willingly, and her fingers end up in his hair, nails ghosting gently against his scalp. 

“Trust me?” she asks. 

Shiro laughs softly into the crook of her neck. As if that was even a question. “Of course.”

She hums her approval, and they stand like that for a while in silence, absorbing each other’s warmth, gathering strength for the battle ahead. 

He doesn’t know how much time has passed when he finally backs away enough to look down at her, and raises on hand with his pinky extended. It’s a gesture he hasn’t made since he was a child, and he’s always known that it was nothing more than schoolyard fallacies, but the idea of it was so innocent and genuine that it gave him just the amount of comfort he needed. 

“Pinky promise we’ll get back to each other all right?”

Allura looks at his hand for a long moment, her brow creased in confusion. “Pinky… promise?”

“Oh.” Shiro feels his cheeks warming slightly and he drops his hand. “Sorry, it’s just a thing kids on Earth do sometimes.”

“It’s an earth thing,” she says, her eyes lighting up just like they do whenever she learns something new about Shiro’s world. “Show me what it is?”

“Uh, well.” Shiro repeats the motion, raising his hand like he had before. “You make a promise, and then you seal it by linking your pinkies together.”

“Like this?” She imitates the way Shiro is holding his hand and links their fingers together. 

“Exactly,” Shiro grins. “It’s a very sacred pact for eight year olds on a playground. They don’t always stick… I’m pretty sure I pinky promised to be best friends forever with people I don’t even remember the name of.”

Allura just looks up at him, her eyes twinkling. “Then how should I believe you now, my paladin, when you make such a promise to me?”

Shiro hums under his breath and pretends to muse about this for a moment. “Because I am much older and wiser now?”

“Age has nothing to do with wisdom,” she laughs, “but you haven’t lead me astray so far, so I suppose I will have to believe you.” 

Shiro just shrugs in response. He’s a little distracted by the sound of her laugh; he’s drinking it in, along with her eyes, the curve of her smile, the warmth of her skin against his. He’s soaking it all up, committing it all to memory. Just in case. 

She leans forward then, and looks him dead in the eyes, her expression becoming serious. “I pinky promise that after this, we will be together again,” she says. “We will come back to each other.”

Shiro squeezes her pinky, sealing the pact. “I promise as well.” 

He kisses her then, long and soft, his hands splayed against the small of her back, holding her close as possible. It isn’t long before Coran is telling them that the paladins need to get to their lions, that the ship is in need of its commander. They part reluctantly, going their separate ways. 

They make it back, of course, and it becomes a thing that Allura does somewhat often. 

She does it while cradling Keith in her arms after he takes a bad hit; he’s too pale and they’re far away from the castle, but Allura is determined and certain when she pinky promises that she will get him back in time, that she won’t let him die. 

Lance breaks down in tears one day when he realizes that it’s his younger brother’s birthday. The rest of the team is in shock because they’ve never seen Lance so openly vulnerable before, but she just steps forward and takes his tear streaked face in her hands. She pinky promises him then that she will get him back to his family, and that he’ll get to tell his little brother all about how he saved the universe from the pilot seat of the most powerful being in the universe.

She pinky promises Pidge that they will find her father and brother, she pinky promises Hunk that they will make it back to Shay so he can see her again. 

It’s endearing, and Shiro loves that she’s adopted a little earth custom. It makes him feel warm every time she does it; his chest tightens and he feels the corners of his mouth quirk up in a small smile. Seeing her do it feels like he's adopted a little piece of _him_. He knows that it's a bit silly, but he can't help but think of it that way and feel an absurd rush of contentment every time he sees her do that small gesture. 

She doesn't just do it with the team, though; after that first time it becomes something between the two of them. Before a battle, they join pinkies and promise that they will find their way back to each other. She always kisses him sweetly and Shiro closes his eyes, letting her warmth seep into his bones, lets her imprint her touch on his skin. 

The thing is, Shiro knows that at the end of the day, the universe doesn’t really care for the promises that they make to each other. It could tear them apart, take their lives, crush them without a care for what they swore to each other. 

Even so, Shiro also knows this; that against all odds, Allura will find her way back to him, and he will find his way back to her.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Come join me on my [tumblr](http://pensversusswords.tumblr.com/)!


End file.
